Women remain poorly represented in decision-making positions in the media (International Federation of Journalists, 2001; 2010). The number of women journalists has increased dramatically and many countries are close to or reached already gender parity among journalists. Nevertheless, there are still many countries where women are underrepresented among journalists. Furthermore, in most countries, women and men do not play an equal role in the reporting of news. Women tend to be less involved than men in what is considered to be “hard” news, in economic, political or war domains, and more involved in “soft” news, focused on social issues. Women tend to be well represented among the presenters of the news, but their share among the news editors, heads of the departments and media owners remains very low.
The role of the media is crucial for power and decision-making. However, the media itself operates within social, economic and political contexts, meaning that it reflects commonly held perceptions whilst simultaneously affecting how people perceive issues. The portrayal of electoral candidates is one example. For instance, IDEA (Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance) and UN Women’s report on media coverage of elections in Latin America (2011) reveals that in 2009 in Bolivia, despite female candidates representing 47 per cent of all candidates, they obtained only 27 per cent of print media coverage, 14 per cent of television coverage, and 34 per cent of radio coverage. Unequal media coverage of women candidates results in them being perceived to be less legitimate, thus diminishing their chances of being elected.

Surveys of companies in the media can be used to collect data on sex-distribution of journalists, editors and heads of departments in the media.

Population censuses can provide some data on journalists when a detailed classification of occupations is used in data collection.

Media monitoring studies are an important source of information on (a) coverage of gender and equality issues in the media, (b) stereotypical presentation of gender roles, including sexist and biased presentation of women, and (c) gender balanced coverage of persons in positions of power and decision-making or political candidates. These studies can also be used as source of information on the representation of women among presenters and journalists.

At national level, there are no standard sources of data for women and men in positions of power and decision-making in the media and these data are rarely produced. Some surveys of companies in the media and media monitoring studies have been conducted across several countries by some non-governmental organizations, on an ad-hoc basis. Population censuses, conducted by national statistical offices, are often able to collect data on journalists, among other occupations. However, these data are not routinely processed at the disaggregated level that would allow distinguishing journalists from other occupations. Routinely, at four-digit ISCO (International Standard Classification of Occupations) level, journalists are included in a heterogeneous category of “authors, journalists and other writers”.